Exploring moderational and mediational relations among word reading, vocabulary, sentence processing and comprehension for struggling adult readers

Abstract

Background: A significant portion of adults struggle to read at a basic level. Word reading (defined here as decoding and word recognition) appears to play a pivotal role for this population of readers; however, less is known about how word reading relates to other important semantic processes (e.g., vocabulary, sentence processing) known to account for a large portion of variance in reading comprehension. This study used the Reading Systems Framework to explore the extent that moderational and mediational relations existed between word reading and semantic processing abilities in predicting reading comprehension. Methods: Participants (N = 169) completed the Reading Inventory and Scholastic Evaluation, which consists of a series of subtests intended to measure decoding/word recognition, vocabulary, sentence processing and reading comprehension.Results: A moderated mediation model was constructed to assess the extent to which moderational and mediational relations between word reading and semantic processing were predictive of comprehension. Results suggested that word reading moderated the effect of vocabulary knowledge on comprehension among struggling adult readers. Additionally, semantic processing at the word (i.e., vocabulary) and sentence level both significantly mediated the relation between word reading and comprehension.

Impact of Affective and Cognitive Variables on University Student Reading Comprehension

“…Likewise, vocabulary played an important role in the WAIS Vocabulary test, by defining the concepts in terms of oral vocabulary. These results are in line with those obtained by Feller et al [90], who concluded that vocabulary significantly mediates the relationship between word reading and comprehension. Similarly, a study by Tran et al [91] found similar results in a test of vocabulary breadth and depth in a sample of 103 adults with low literacy skills.…”

“…Tasks for the measurement of reading comprehension LECTUM 7-Reading Comprehension Test [69]: This test involves the comprehension of explicit and implicit information at the textual, pragmatic, and critical levels in two argumentative texts-one expository and one narrative text-with 32 multiple-choice questions to be answered in 90 Reading Speed Task: This task automatically measures reading time in milliseconds of high-and low-familiarity short texts. Each text has 2 sentences (11 to 13 words) with the same syntactic structure.…”